Investigation of the Huge Tsunami from the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki, Japan, Earthquake Using Ocean Floor Boreholes to the Fault Zone

Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 343, named the Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST), drilled ocean floor boreholes through the fault zone of the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki earthquake (M9.0) to enhance understanding of the rupture process and tsunami generation. This project investigat...

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Main Authors: Jim Mori, Frederick Chester, Emily E. Brodsky, Suichi Kodaira
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The Oceanography Society 2014-06-01
Series:Oceanography
Subjects:
Online Access:http://tos.org/oceanography/archive/27-2_mori.pdf
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author Jim Mori
Frederick Chester
Emily E. Brodsky
Suichi Kodaira
author_facet Jim Mori
Frederick Chester
Emily E. Brodsky
Suichi Kodaira
author_sort Jim Mori
collection DOAJ
description Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 343, named the Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST), drilled ocean floor boreholes through the fault zone of the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki earthquake (M9.0) to enhance understanding of the rupture process and tsunami generation. This project investigated the very large fault slip that caused the devastating tsunami by making borehole stress measurements, sampling the plate boundary fault zone, and taking temperature measurements across the fault zone. The results show that the earthquake rupture occurred in a narrow fault zone (< 5 m). Based on both laboratory experiments on fault zone material and temperature monitoring of the fault zone, we show that the fault had very low friction during the earthquake. The low friction properties of the fault zone might be attributed to high smectite clay content of the sediment. These physical and frictional characteristics contributed to the unusually large fault slip that occurred during the earthquake and generated the tsunami.
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spelling doaj.art-b24b563a542e4d11849ec0d7ac4be8c72022-12-21T17:57:37ZengThe Oceanography SocietyOceanography1042-82752014-06-0127213213710.5670/oceanog.2014.48Investigation of the Huge Tsunami from the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki, Japan, Earthquake Using Ocean Floor Boreholes to the Fault ZoneJim Mori0Frederick Chester1Emily E. Brodsky2Suichi Kodaira3Kyoto UniversityTexas A&M UniversityUniversity of California, Santa CruzJAMSTECIntegrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 343, named the Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST), drilled ocean floor boreholes through the fault zone of the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki earthquake (M9.0) to enhance understanding of the rupture process and tsunami generation. This project investigated the very large fault slip that caused the devastating tsunami by making borehole stress measurements, sampling the plate boundary fault zone, and taking temperature measurements across the fault zone. The results show that the earthquake rupture occurred in a narrow fault zone (< 5 m). Based on both laboratory experiments on fault zone material and temperature monitoring of the fault zone, we show that the fault had very low friction during the earthquake. The low friction properties of the fault zone might be attributed to high smectite clay content of the sediment. These physical and frictional characteristics contributed to the unusually large fault slip that occurred during the earthquake and generated the tsunami.http://tos.org/oceanography/archive/27-2_mori.pdfJapan TrenchIODP drillingscientific drillingJFASTocean borehole monitoringTohoku earthquake
spellingShingle Jim Mori
Frederick Chester
Emily E. Brodsky
Suichi Kodaira
Investigation of the Huge Tsunami from the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki, Japan, Earthquake Using Ocean Floor Boreholes to the Fault Zone
Oceanography
Japan Trench
IODP drilling
scientific drilling
JFAST
ocean borehole monitoring
Tohoku earthquake
title Investigation of the Huge Tsunami from the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki, Japan, Earthquake Using Ocean Floor Boreholes to the Fault Zone
title_full Investigation of the Huge Tsunami from the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki, Japan, Earthquake Using Ocean Floor Boreholes to the Fault Zone
title_fullStr Investigation of the Huge Tsunami from the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki, Japan, Earthquake Using Ocean Floor Boreholes to the Fault Zone
title_full_unstemmed Investigation of the Huge Tsunami from the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki, Japan, Earthquake Using Ocean Floor Boreholes to the Fault Zone
title_short Investigation of the Huge Tsunami from the 2011 Tōhoku-Oki, Japan, Earthquake Using Ocean Floor Boreholes to the Fault Zone
title_sort investigation of the huge tsunami from the 2011 tohoku oki japan earthquake using ocean floor boreholes to the fault zone
topic Japan Trench
IODP drilling
scientific drilling
JFAST
ocean borehole monitoring
Tohoku earthquake
url http://tos.org/oceanography/archive/27-2_mori.pdf
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